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Crystal Palace history with links to articles and stories on the Crystal Palace itself, as well as historical personalities from the Crystal Palace area. Find latest historical articles for the Crystal Palace area today

Star of stage and screen who helped the war effort honoured Actor and film director Leslie Howard (1893-1943) has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at 45 Farquhar Road in Upper Norwood, south London. The plaque was installed on Tuesday 3rd September at the home where he lived in his later childhood –…

News of the plans revealed in Property Week have sparked an immediate response from Bromley council which merely claims there has been a very early conversation with a developer who may be interested in developing the so-called top site.The revelations of meetings involving the billionaire developer, Bromley, the Greater London Authority and Arup…

An excellent lecture on the Crystal Palace dinosaurs by Professor Joe Cain, as part of UCL’s free, public, Lunch Hour Lectures. This summer series of four Lunch Hour Lectures featured introductions by Museum of London curators, and discussed: the Crystal Palace dinosaurs; the British legacy of slavery; the Black Death; and the hidden community histories of…

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the Crystal Palace by fire on the 30th November 1936, the Crystal Palace Museum will be presenting a special large screen showing of dramatic images of the 1936 fire. This will be shown all day during the normal museum’s winter opening times (11am – 3.00pm) on…

The Crystal Palace Fire: The End of an Era The Crystal Palace fire occurred on 30 Nov 1936. The peoples palace in Sydenham which had stood dominating the skyline of Upper Norwood for over eighty years as a beacon for culture and enlightenment and an emblem for Victorian invention and engineering was no more. “A dramatic…

On April 29th 1922 three young children the eldest not more than seven years old moved through a huge crowd that had gathered in Upper Norwood. Each child placed three daffodils the stems covered with brown tissue paper - in memory of their Dear Daddy. The occasion was the unveiling of Upper Norwoods war memorial. The South London Press…

The areas first cinema was the Photodrome, which opened around 1909. Situated off Ranger Road now Jasper Road it would later become the premises of the Jacatex mail order company and the Crystal Palace snooker and social club before being demolished and replaced by housing.

In October 1914 the Crystal Palace was taken over by His Majesty’s Admiralty as a training depot. Its official title was HMS Victory IV but to the 125,000 men who trained there before going off to fight in the Great War it was known as ‘HMS Crystal Palace’.

Conan Doyle In the search for their hero, fans also make their way to Northumberland Street, leading down to the Thames. There they find the Sherlock Holmes pub with windows of etched glass showing Conan Doyle, Holmes and Watson. Inside are even greater treasures, for upstairs is a reproduction of the sitting room at 221b…

114 years ago Crystal Palace was put on the mapwrites Andrew McFarlane of BBC News Magazine when Bridget Driscoll (pictured) was hit at the speed of 4mph by a Roger-Benz car. (Thanks to Stephen Pollock-Hill who corrected my erroneous statement that this was the Worlds first motor accident. See comments below. Ed)